I must say, I am well and truly appalled at the comments made by the Democratic National Committee’s communications director:

Shock and surprise – but not necessarily dismay – have spread across the world after the announcement that Barack Obama is to be awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The first French translation we’ve posted on the subject is from France’s Rue 89. For the Rue 89, Pierre Haski writes in part: “We salute the intention, the bold words and perhaps mostly the man himself and his journey...

President Barack Obama being awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize is akin to me winning a Pulitizer Prize in journalism. Neither one of us accomplished enough to earn it. The world’s most prestigious award is diminished to the level of an Academy Award nominee finishing fifth. Hey, Obama talks the talk but has failed so far to walk the walk. The Saturday Night Live spoof that he has accomplished nothing...

While I strongly disagree with most of Charles Krauthammer’s ideology and politics, I must admit that the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist is a brilliant journalist and probably the most influential commentator in our country. That’s perhaps why I am disappointed at his latest column that appeared this morning in the Washington Post. As I have pointed out in a previous post, president Obama is faced...

Here’s a video of President Barack Obama’s statement on winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. He says he will accept the award as a “call for action:”

The surprise news that President Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize didn’t put a damper on the ongoing, nonstop 7/24 political partisan warfare in the United States — in fact, it was akin to throwing a lit match into a big, fat puddle of gasoline. The Huffington Post has an eye-opening post HERE: conservatives reacted with outrage, anger and some demonization (one writer even...

Pavel Constantin, Romania This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

News videos are now popping up online about the surprise announcement that President Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Here are a few of them: The AP’s asks if the prize will be a boost or bust: ITTN News: Reuters video with Q&A of committee addressing why he won — getting some tough questions about what Obama has actually accomplished to deserve it: Russia Today’s...

Christo Komarnitski, Bulgaria This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved. UPDATE: Here’s a VIDEO of Obama’s actual statement about winning the prize.

I was pleasanly surprised to see that Rabbi Eric Yoffie will be one of the keynote speakers at the J Street convention later this month. Rabbi Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, describes himself as a dove who welcomed the founding of J Street as an alternative to AIPAC. Yet when J Street equated the actions of Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Yoffie lashed out, writing, [J Street's] words are...

Guest post by Rafael Noboa Rivera Rafael Noboa Rivera is a writer and combat veteran. He served in Iraq from April 2003 to March 2004. This post originally appeared at The Hill’s Congress Blog. “You never have 100% certainty. If you wait till you have that, you’ll fail.” The evidence is unmistakable. We have hard choices before us. As the impact of irreversible climate change and the...

Like when you might possibly be deciding whether to drop one or more 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities:

Gore Vidal, 83, described as America’s greatest essayist and one of its best-selling novelists, says he has in his life “crashed many barriers.” Vidal’s brutal manner of criticism hasn’t waned. The United States of America, he says, is a “madhouse” and its President is “overwhelmed” and “incompetent”. Last year he famously switched allegiance from Hillary...

Many men in service and their sons were exposed to poisoned water at Camp LeJeune between 1960s and 1980s, and more than 20 of the men now have male breast cancer. Many of those sick, are denied VA benefits. Completed their mission, but what is owed to them in honor… is withheld. “Among the chemicals later identified in the drinking water were trichloroethylene, a degreaser; benzene; and the dry...

Is it possible that the People’s Republic of China is in fact not aggressive at all, and wants to create ‘harmonious international relations?’ According to Fyodor Lukyanov of Russia’s Gazeta newspaper, Western countries – including Russia, may be superimposing their own ways of thinking on the Chinese, and hence, drawing the wrong conclusions. For Gazeta, Fyodor Lukyanov writes...

Everyone wants to know what he’s thinking. If Gates says no more troops for Afghanistan, Obama can say “Why send more troops if George Bush’s secretary of defense says they’re not necessary?” If Gates says send the troops, it will be extremely hard for Obama to reject the advice of a secretary so highly-regarded that he was the only Bush cabinet member reappointed by Obama. So...

Mike O’Hanlon says no. Eugene Robinson says, The men with the stars on their shoulders — and I say this with enormous respect for their patriotism and service — need to shut up and salute. Robinson adds that he applies the same standard to military officers whose opinions he agrees with. Clearly, Robinson shares the suspicion of many, including myself, that opinions about civil-military relations...

Is it time for the U.S. military to leave Afghanistan and that nation’s security to an international peacekeeping force? In this surprisingly forthright op-ed credited to the deputy general of the China Council for National Security Policy Studies, the Beijing leadership definitively wades into the question of what should be done to fix Afghanistan. For the China Daily, Deputy General Li Qinggong...

Paresh Nath, The Khaleej Times, UAE This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. All rights reserved.

Chris van Hollen (D-MD) on Republicans pressuring Pres. Obama to make a decision about whether to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan:

When Dwight David Eisenhower came back from World War II, no one knew whether he was a Republican or Democrat until he ran for president. He had spent his years as a commanding general steering clear of politics. Not so today. Starting three years ago when Iraq was in shambles, George W. Bush took political cover behind Gen. David Petraeus, who successfully redirected a misbegotten war into a counter-insurgency...

There seems to be an emerging trend in the Muslim world, in which all leaders regarded as despots are called ‘worse than Saddam’, ‘as bad as Saddam’, or the ‘new Saddam.’ Yesterday we posted ‘Muammar Qaddafi is No Better than Saddam,’ from the newspaper Sotal Iraq. Today, from Kuwait’s Arab Times, we have this article that warns about Iranian President...

It was with a good bit of disappointment that I read my friend Ed Morrissey’s take over at Hot Air on the decision by Gen McChrystal to give a speech on war strategy in London last week. Of course, to the best of my reccolection, Ed hasn’t served in uniform, so he may not be as familiar with the Military way as those of us who have been there. McChrystal may not know the ways of Washington, but...

WASHINGTON — At a White House dinner with a group of historians at the beginning of the summer, Robert Dallek, a shrewd student of both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, offered a chilling comment to President Obama. “In my judgment,” he recalls saying, “war kills off great reform movements.” The American record is pretty clear: World War I brought the Progressive...

Libyan Despot Muammar Qaddafi succeeded in amusing and ticking off quite a few people last week with his rambling speech at the United Nations, which he made, according to him, not due to his role as dictator of Libya or president of the U.N. Security Council [yes - Qaddafi presently holds the rotating presidency of that body], but in his capacity as African Union chairman. According to Noor al-Harby, a...